Today's excitement is...

I am now officially an Alien!

(I blocked out some info that I didnt think was a great idea to have posted on the web...)

Finally some pics

Here, at long last are a few pictures from Ojika. These are just a couple that I took this past weekend on a bike ride around the island. You might be able to click on the images to make them bigger. Give it a try and see what happens!

Most of the farmers are doing a rice harvest right now, so the roads are lined with the drying stems. Many people just use the roadside barriers for drying racks, while others have thier own wooden racks set up in the fields.

Not sure if this picture will show up very clear, but it is a beautiful farmhouse right on a little bay. They get to watch the sunset over the ocean every night. This is a really great spot for a house!
Standing in a small park looking out over one of the neighboring islands. I'm not sure what the name of this one is, there are many small islands all around the one I am on.

Same park looking at the beach below and the island in the background. Unfortunately this park is not used very much at all (most of the parks on the island seems to not be used). The beach has a lot of trash collected on it. The students at the school do beach cleaning days, but I dont think this one is on the circuit anymore. Because of the decline in population on the island, many of these nice little spots have fallen out of care. There are not enough people using them, and not enough money to keep them maintained, I guess. It is a shame, because there are some areas that look like they used to be really nice.

Hopefully I'll be able to post more pictures soon, these few dont do the island justice at all. Even despite the lack of upkeep in some areas, it is a very beautiful island.

Japanese OS

For all the computer nerds out there (Richard) ... here is a screenshot of my computer in Japanese. It can be difficult at times!

Brett Bucks

I decided to make up some fake money at work today. I think I am going to use it to give to my students when they use spontanious english with me outside of the classroom. The more difficult the english, the more bucks they get. They can then use the "Brett Bucks" to get something... I haven't decided what yet, maybe candy or small items I have from the US. I'll figure that part out later.

I figure that this scheme might encourage them to use their english skills outside of the classroom a bit more. We'll see.

Here are pictures of my $1 and $5 amounts so far:

Incidently, it can be a bit laborious to do difficult tasks on my japanese laptop. Most of the menus are written in Kanji (difficult to read much of the time) so either i am choosing options based on memory from using the english version, or it is trial and error until i click the right one.

Ahh, sodesu. I am getting the hang of it anyways!
むずかしですね!

Skype number

Right, so they overcharged my for my skype number and now that it is sorted out any voicemails that were left for me in the last week or so might have been lost... just a heads up. I still have the same number and it is working just fine now, so leave all the messages you want from here on out. I still will not be able to listen to them until I get internet access in my apartment though...

Might as well update as long as I am on here, I suppose!

I had a great dinner last night with the women from the community English conversation class that I will be teaching, and also the JET who I am replacing. We had dinner on a wide open grassy field on the North side of the island. It was a stunning view, as the land drops down to a rocky ocean shoreline below. There was a nice breeze blowing, and it was early evening so the temperature was perfect. We had a great dinner of Korean rice (sort of a rice with thick stew over the top) and salad, with almost all of the ingredients coming from one of the members' organic garden. We then had some dessert followed by fresh home-grown watermelon! By that time it was pretty dark so we sat around and talked and lit sparklers with one woman's three little kids.

I then dazzled them with my limitless (sure) knowledge of constellations and we called it a night.

I seem to have aquired a nickname already too. When I was introducing myself I was asked what my least favorite food was.... so I told them the first thing that came to mind. Beets.
They knew what they were but lucky for me they don't have them in Japan. Anyways a short time later when we were all dishing up food one of the women tried to call my name.... Hey Beets! This plate is for you. (This was in Japanese) Everyone broke out laughing and for the rest of the night it kept popping back up here and there.

I am also very often mistaken for Brad when I say my name(oh, like Brad Pitt?) or bread, which leads people to call me Pan san, or Pan sensei, since that is the Japanese word for bread.

I am sure I am doing the same thing to some of their names though... so its only fair.

First post from Ojika-Cho

Hey all, quick post here!

I am in Ojika now, I have been here since the night of July 30th. The only access I have to the internet at the moment is from this computer at work, so no skype or chat access really. It seems like it might be at least another two weeks before I am able to have all of that set up.

I have to tell you, this island is beautiful! It is so incredibly green, with amazing plants growing everywhere, including very large bamboo which I am amazed by.

The insects here are supersized as well. I haven't seen any yet, but I am told there are huge spiders (harmless ones) several inches across, and poisonous centipedes that grow up to 6 inches long. I have already seen HUGE cicadas, the size of small birds, and they are freaky when running through the woods and they scream out and buzz right by my head. They obviously are harmless, but it is surprising when it happens... especially since I am not used to it yet.

I have been going for long runs to orient myself to the island, and it is great to run down the winding, narrow roads past all of the rice paddies, looking out over the ocean and the surrounding islands. It is incredible.

Many of the houses on the island are built in traditional Japanese style, and most have very well landscaped areas in front or back of their houses. I love to see the care and thought that they put in to each individual plant or tree. Literally each tree is hand shaped and cared for.

Well, that is it for today, posts may be spread apart a bit until I have access to internet from my apartment.

Take care,

Brett